when did your babies fall into a rough pattern / routine?

[agirlcalledvicky]

Hi just wondering when things might start to fall into a rough pattern? When did your babies days and nights start to look similar? I am new to this baby lark so don't know what to expect!

DS is 19 weeks old, we EBF on demand and just follow his lead with everything else. His naps tend to be all over the place, he normally wakes after 45 mins into his nap and then 50/50 whether will settle himself back down for another hour or so or not. I put him down for a nap when he looks sleepy or after 2 hours which ever happens first. He tends to have 3 naps a day and feeds to sleep before them but its random as to which are long and short. He tends to go to bed at the same time give or take half an hour or so depending on when his last nap was. Nights are very hit and miss last night he woke 5 times in the night the night before only once .

Basically I am rambling but I was wondering whether this was pretty "normal" and when he is likely to start to fall into his own routine. I am happy going with the flow but am starting to find it hard to plan to do things as I never know when we will be feeding / napping etc.

Sorry should have added, DS will only really nap in cot at home. He won't nap in sling or pram so feel a bit housebound as I never know when he will be napping during the day. If he doesn't get his naps he's an overtired monster!

I am trying to get my 3.5 week old in to routine following EASY (eat-activity-sleep-your time). I am feeding more frequently day time, and then expect the baby to sleep longer through the night. It actually helps, last few nights he slept through 5 or 6 hours at night. I think it is never to early to try the routine.

OP, if you get into routine, your DS should fall asleep wherever he is, not only in his cot. Always around the same time.

At 3 months I put a routine in place based loosly on The Contented little baby book. It seemed to complement pretty much what my dd was doing/ needed so worked well for us. By 3 months I needed some structure and sleep!!!!

You sound like me when my DS was about 19 weeks... He developed his own day time routine at about 24 weeks; night times are still hit and miss but because of teething more than anything else. The routine he found on his own was...

Wake up: 6-6:30
Snooze: 8:30 (1hour)
Snooze: 12:30 (2hours)
Snooze: 4:30 (30mins)
Bed: 7:00 (even if he wasn't tired I was strict with bed time, the rest I left to him),

He's now 8 months and has dropped the 4:30pm snooze. I still EBF on demand and also to sleep (although I'm trying to stop this now).

Oh and if I take him out in his buggy during nap times he falls asleep in the buggy. So you should try that, get you out of the house a bit.

Thanks for the replies. Very impressive stuff getting 3 weeks olds into routines - I am not sure I knew what day it was nevermind what time when DS was that age !

I guess I was hoping he would find his own way with time but thought it might have happened before now. I think the random napping is stopping us from falling into any kind of routine, he will sleep anything from 30 mins to 2.5 hours despite me plugging away at putting him down for a nap at roughly the same times every day. Your day looks a bit like one of ours on a "good" day Guacamohohohole (great name by the way!) - hopefully we get more consistent as he heads towards 6 months too. Think I will try the pram for some naps again when the snow clears, main problem putting me off is our dog is terrified of the pram (no really!)....

Sounds similar to us - DS is 19.5 weeks. I don't really want him to have a strict routine as it would mean we couldn't be flexible with what we do each day. A typical day for us is:

7am wake when DH's alarm goes off, feed, play in bed, cup of tea (for me)
8am go back to sleep (blush)
9.30ish get up and dressed, feed
10am go out to an activity or something
11.30ish come home, DS sleeps in the pram on the way
12ish feed
2ish maybe go out to meet friends or go shopping
or if at home, feed at 3pm ish, DS naps on my lap for an hour or so
6.30pm get DS ready for bed
wait till he looks sleepy or needs a feed, then whisk him off to bed - he goes to sleep sometime between 7.30pm-10pm

all a bit all over the place! it totally depends what we're doing each day. he usually has two naps a day but they usually have to be on me or in the pram or carseat. this afternoon he has been asleep in the car seat since we got in at about 3.30pm - I should really go and wake him. it has been absolute bliss, I have sat on my arse and eaten chocolate and MNed instead of doing anything useful around the house. oops!

Not a fan of strict routines here, dd's day roughly like this:

530-7 ish... wake,feed in bed
830-9ish...feed then nap. she doesn't like napping on day so working on this. Normally 45 mins,2 hrs of I stay near her.
1030-11ish...feed then out to walk or activity or summat
1230-1ish...feed then nap. Home or in pushchair,sling,car.
3ish...feed
430ish...feed then nap
6ish...bath
7ish...fed and into bed
2230...she has just reinstated her dreamfeed
0300..feed.

She is poorly and unsettled at the mo,so all naps have been on me. She is also ebf and eats A LOT!!

We naturally fell into a routine by the time DS was about 4 months old. I didn't push it all, and it worked brilliantly. The only set time I instigated was 5.30pm - naked time, followed by bath time and then boob. I'd then pop him down to sleep at about 7pm.
So our basic day would go:

7.30- 8ish- get up
10.30am - midday - nap
3pm-4.30pm - nap
7pm - bed

and I breast fed on demand.

When he was about 8 months old his nap moved to just one which is from midday - 2pm and he moved into his cot for the nap whereas previously it had always been in his buggy.

Gawd, I tried from 3 months onwards to get my dd into a routine and she was having none of it - she'd get into some kind of routine, then it would disappear after two weeks.

She now, at nine months, seems to be in a routine of an hour's sleep from 10.30 and another hour from 3. She fell into that quite naturally about a month ago.

Next time, I'm going to join the 'Bollocks to routine' camp. In my experience, I was just setting myself up for a fall, as I'm not someone who can leave my baby crying because it's not 'time' for a feed. She sorted herself out when she was ready, which is pretty much what I expect her to do throughout her childhood. I am too lazy to angst. :)

My DD is 9 weeks old and has no routine during the day, I go by what she wants to do and breastfeed on demand, but bedtime is different. Since 6 weeks of age she has had a bath at 7pm, then feeds til she falls asleep by about 8pm. She then sleeps though til 6am when my husband gets up, then back to sleep til 8am.

It works great for us and i've really started to enjoy being a mum and learnt to stop worrying about what we "should" be doing, and when.

I am so, so envious of everyone who has managed to get a routine going!

We had a bedtime routine by 8 weeks for DD1, which she fell into pretty much of her own accord. I thought it was due to my marvellous parenting, of course . But DD2, now 11 weeks, isn't having any of it. She'll only sleep in the sling on me during the day and also needs this, or lying in bed with me, to fall asleep at night. It's driving me nuts.

I just wanted to say that if you're reading this and feeling rubbish because you have no routine and everyone else seems to have it all sorted, keep in mind how much of it is a matter of babies deciding to do their own thing!

DS didn't fall into a daytime routine till 7 months.

Your DS sounds pretty normal to me.

My ds was totally anti-routine, until a couple months after starting nursery, so about 13-14 months.

However, once I'd tossed my copy of Gina F* away in disgust when he was about 3 weeks, this really wasn't a problem - I went and did stuff and he would make hungry gestures and I'd feed, and fell asleep when he felt like it. I remember friends when he was 9 months asking how on earth I got him to nap, and as if on cue he fell asleep on the floor where our babies were playing.

I tried to get as much food and milk as possible into him in the early evening which helped the sleeping at night so by 11 months when I went back to work he would be sleeping roughly 7-7 with 1-2 wakings, and sleeping through almost all the time from 20 months on.
The only thing I did which seemed to have any influence was lots of early evening feeds seemed to help. Many evenings watching telly with baby going from me to basket repeatedly!